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    <title>SparkToro</title>
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      <title>SparkToro Demographics: 3 Underrated Ways to Upgrade Your Marketing</title>
      <link>https://sparktoro.com/blog/sparktoro-demographics-3-underrated-ways-to-upgrade-your-marketing/</link>
      <comments>https://sparktoro.com/blog/sparktoro-demographics-3-underrated-ways-to-upgrade-your-marketing/#respond</comments>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Amanda Natividad]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Tue, 28 Jun 2022 06:27:38 +0000</pubDate>
      <category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[SparkToro]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Tactics]]></category>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">https://sparktoro.com/blog/?p=7240</guid>
      <description><![CDATA[It’s been about one year since we launched Demographics in SparkToro, and it’s one of our most popular features. Many of our customers use the insights to develop personas, run programmatic ads, evaluate brand marketing partnerships, and more.



But I have a feeling there are even more creative use cases that our community hasn’t yet tapped into.



So I’m outlining&#8230;]]></description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[It’s been about one year since we launched Demographics in SparkToro, and it’s one of our most popular features. Many of our customers use the insights to develop personas, run programmatic ads, evaluate brand marketing partnerships, and more.



But I have a feeling there are even more creative use cases that our community hasn’t yet tapped into.



So I’m outlining&hellip;]]></content:encoded>
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      <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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    <item>
      <title>The Episodic Content Creator’s Guide to Using SparkToro</title>
      <link>https://sparktoro.com/blog/episodic-content-creators-guide-to-using-sparktoro/</link>
      <comments>https://sparktoro.com/blog/episodic-content-creators-guide-to-using-sparktoro/#respond</comments>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Rand Fishkin]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Mon, 20 Jun 2022 02:40:13 +0000</pubDate>
      <category><![CDATA[Events]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[SparkToro]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Tactics]]></category>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">https://sparktoro.com/blog/?p=7193</guid>
      <description><![CDATA[Last Saturday, I received an email from Rich Wilan, founder of Fascinate Productions. Rich and his team help podcast creators build audiences and top charts, and they&#8217;re very good at their work, helping clients like Zoe: Science &#38; Nutrition, Startup Dads, A Cuppa Happy (and more) launch, grow, and reach chart-topping numbers.



Rich kindly gave me permission to make my&#8230;]]></description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Last Saturday, I received an email from Rich Wilan, founder of Fascinate Productions. Rich and his team help podcast creators build audiences and top charts, and they&#8217;re very good at their work, helping clients like Zoe: Science &amp; Nutrition, Startup Dads, A Cuppa Happy (and more) launch, grow, and reach chart-topping numbers.



Rich kindly gave me permission to make my&hellip;]]></content:encoded>
      <wfw:commentRss>https://sparktoro.com/blog/episodic-content-creators-guide-to-using-sparktoro/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
      <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Google, Apple, and Amazon Stifle Innovation When They Favor Their Own Products</title>
      <link>https://sparktoro.com/blog/google-apple-and-amazon-stifle-innovation-when-they-favor-their-own-products/</link>
      <comments>https://sparktoro.com/blog/google-apple-and-amazon-stifle-innovation-when-they-favor-their-own-products/#respond</comments>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Rand Fishkin]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Tue, 14 Jun 2022 22:52:41 +0000</pubDate>
      <category><![CDATA[Events]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Industry]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Predictions]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Psychology]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Startups]]></category>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">https://sparktoro.com/blog/?p=7153</guid>
      <description><![CDATA[The SparkToro team got an exciting surprise on Sunday evening: a mention of our research on Last Week Tonight by John Oliver. The full episode, Big Tech Monopolies, is available on YouTube. It covers an issue I&#8217;ve railed against before, but with a heightened sense of urgency: there is actually a bipartisan bill in Congress that might fix this.







Thankfully,&#8230;]]></description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[The SparkToro team got an exciting surprise on Sunday evening: a mention of our research on Last Week Tonight by John Oliver. The full episode, Big Tech Monopolies, is available on YouTube. It covers an issue I&#8217;ve railed against before, but with a heightened sense of urgency: there is actually a bipartisan bill in Congress that might fix this.







Thankfully,&hellip;]]></content:encoded>
      <wfw:commentRss>https://sparktoro.com/blog/google-apple-and-amazon-stifle-innovation-when-they-favor-their-own-products/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
      <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>You Don’t Need a Buyer Persona. You Need Multiple Audience Personas.</title>
      <link>https://sparktoro.com/blog/you-dont-need-a-buyer-persona-you-need-multiple-audience-personas/</link>
      <comments>https://sparktoro.com/blog/you-dont-need-a-buyer-persona-you-need-multiple-audience-personas/#respond</comments>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Amanda Natividad]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Fri, 03 Jun 2022 04:57:08 +0000</pubDate>
      <category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[audience personas]]></category>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">https://sparktoro.com/blog/?p=7121</guid>
      <description><![CDATA[Update: We hosted a SparkToro Office Hours webinar about audience personas. Sign up to watch the replay.



I have a bone to pick with buyer personas, but it’s only because I like them (in contrast to Rand who doesn’t like them; yes, we can disagree).



My quibbles? There’s a misguided focus on demographics, arbitrarily chosen stock photos, and cutesy alliterative&#8230;]]></description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Update: We hosted a SparkToro Office Hours webinar about audience personas. Sign up to watch the replay.



I have a bone to pick with buyer personas, but it’s only because I like them (in contrast to Rand who doesn’t like them; yes, we can disagree).



My quibbles? There’s a misguided focus on demographics, arbitrarily chosen stock photos, and cutesy alliterative&hellip;]]></content:encoded>
      <wfw:commentRss>https://sparktoro.com/blog/you-dont-need-a-buyer-persona-you-need-multiple-audience-personas/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
      <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>SparkToro’s Mission, Vision, and Values: BELUX</title>
      <link>https://sparktoro.com/blog/sparktoros-mission-vision-and-values-belux/</link>
      <comments>https://sparktoro.com/blog/sparktoros-mission-vision-and-values-belux/#respond</comments>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Rand Fishkin]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Tue, 31 May 2022 05:14:07 +0000</pubDate>
      <category><![CDATA[Hiring]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Psychology]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[SparkToro]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Startups]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Team]]></category>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">https://sparktoro.com/blog/?p=7047</guid>
      <description><![CDATA[Those skilled in the art of BS detection can tell you that 99% of company mission, vision, and values statements are meaningless. For corporate ideals to be more than just blatant-hypocrisy-in-poster-form, leadership has to build them into the company&#8217;s operating systems: how they hire/fire/promote, how they prioritize product investments, treat customers, make decisions around funding and acquisitions, and more.



Even&#8230;]]></description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Those skilled in the art of BS detection can tell you that 99% of company mission, vision, and values statements are meaningless. For corporate ideals to be more than just blatant-hypocrisy-in-poster-form, leadership has to build them into the company&#8217;s operating systems: how they hire/fire/promote, how they prioritize product investments, treat customers, make decisions around funding and acquisitions, and more.



Even&hellip;]]></content:encoded>
      <wfw:commentRss>https://sparktoro.com/blog/sparktoros-mission-vision-and-values-belux/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
      <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>SparkToro &amp; Followerwonk Joint Twitter Analysis: 19.42% of Active Accounts Are Fake or Spam</title>
      <link>https://sparktoro.com/blog/sparktoro-followerwonk-joint-twitter-analysis-19-42-of-active-accounts-are-fake-or-spam/</link>
      <comments>https://sparktoro.com/blog/sparktoro-followerwonk-joint-twitter-analysis-19-42-of-active-accounts-are-fake-or-spam/#respond</comments>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Rand Fishkin]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Sun, 15 May 2022 23:29:36 +0000</pubDate>
      <category><![CDATA[Data]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">https://sparktoro.com/blog/?p=6935</guid>
      <description><![CDATA[TL;DR &#8211; From May 13-15, 2022, SparkToro and Followerwonk conducted a rigorous, joint analysis of five datasets including a variety of active (i.e. tweeting) and non-active accounts. The analysis we believe to be most compelling uses 44,058 public Twitter accounts active in the last 90 days. These accounts were randomly selected, by machine, from a set of 130+ million public,&#8230;]]></description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[TL;DR &#8211; From May 13-15, 2022, SparkToro and Followerwonk conducted a rigorous, joint analysis of five datasets including a variety of active (i.e. tweeting) and non-active accounts. The analysis we believe to be most compelling uses 44,058 public Twitter accounts active in the last 90 days. These accounts were randomly selected, by machine, from a set of 130+ million public,&hellip;]]></content:encoded>
      <wfw:commentRss>https://sparktoro.com/blog/sparktoro-followerwonk-joint-twitter-analysis-19-42-of-active-accounts-are-fake-or-spam/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
      <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>SparkToro’s Year 2 Retrospective: Can Chill Work, Alternative Funding, and an Indie Approach Scale?</title>
      <link>https://sparktoro.com/blog/sparktoros-year-2-retrospective-can-chill-work-alternative-funding-and-an-indie-approach-scale/</link>
      <comments>https://sparktoro.com/blog/sparktoros-year-2-retrospective-can-chill-work-alternative-funding-and-an-indie-approach-scale/#respond</comments>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Rand Fishkin]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Thu, 28 Apr 2022 22:50:21 +0000</pubDate>
      <category><![CDATA[SparkToro]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Startups]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Team]]></category>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">https://sparktoro.com/blog/?p=6873</guid>
      <description><![CDATA[Two years ago today, at the nerve-wracking start of a global pandemic, we launched SparkToro. Since then, we&#8217;ve learned a lot, and uncovered plenty of unanswered questions, too. As is tradition, I&#8217;ll try to share the good, the bad, and the interesting in the hopes it can help other entrepreneurs, especially those considering an alternative to standard, venture-backed funding.



First,&#8230;]]></description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Two years ago today, at the nerve-wracking start of a global pandemic, we launched SparkToro. Since then, we&#8217;ve learned a lot, and uncovered plenty of unanswered questions, too. As is tradition, I&#8217;ll try to share the good, the bad, and the interesting in the hopes it can help other entrepreneurs, especially those considering an alternative to standard, venture-backed funding.



First,&hellip;]]></content:encoded>
      <wfw:commentRss>https://sparktoro.com/blog/sparktoros-year-2-retrospective-can-chill-work-alternative-funding-and-an-indie-approach-scale/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
      <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Provable Marketing Attribution is a Boondoggle; Trust Your Gut Instead</title>
      <link>https://sparktoro.com/blog/provable-marketing-attribution-is-a-boondoggle-trust-your-gut-instead/</link>
      <comments>https://sparktoro.com/blog/provable-marketing-attribution-is-a-boondoggle-trust-your-gut-instead/#respond</comments>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Rand Fishkin]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Mon, 04 Apr 2022 10:19:13 +0000</pubDate>
      <category><![CDATA[Data]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Tactics]]></category>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">https://sparktoro.com/blog/?p=6852</guid>
      <description><![CDATA[You&#8217;ve heard the marketing analytics spiel before. It goes something like:



Marketing journeys are long, complicated, multi-channel paths. Tracking them is always imperfect, but if you employ an extensive, expensive, difficult-to-configure combination of tools, tracking systems, and deeply talented statistics professionals, you can build a high-quality, predictive attribution modeling structure that approximates reality with relatively minor gaps.



My counterpoint: don&#8217;t&#8230;]]></description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[You&#8217;ve heard the marketing analytics spiel before. It goes something like:



Marketing journeys are long, complicated, multi-channel paths. Tracking them is always imperfect, but if you employ an extensive, expensive, difficult-to-configure combination of tools, tracking systems, and deeply talented statistics professionals, you can build a high-quality, predictive attribution modeling structure that approximates reality with relatively minor gaps.



My counterpoint: don&#8217;t&hellip;]]></content:encoded>
      <wfw:commentRss>https://sparktoro.com/blog/provable-marketing-attribution-is-a-boondoggle-trust-your-gut-instead/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
      <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>8 Counterintuitive Marketing Strategies That Actually Work</title>
      <link>https://sparktoro.com/blog/8-counterintuitive-marketing-strategies-that-actually-work/</link>
      <comments>https://sparktoro.com/blog/8-counterintuitive-marketing-strategies-that-actually-work/#respond</comments>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Amanda Natividad]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Tue, 01 Mar 2022 06:07:43 +0000</pubDate>
      <category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Psychology]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Tactics]]></category>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">https://sparktoro.com/blog/?p=6842</guid>
      <description><![CDATA[Cold outreach is typically seen as a numbers game: hit as many inboxes as you can, assuming 5% or fewer will convert. But I’ve never agreed with that approach because I believe my reputation is on the line when I message a stranger. I don’t want them to feel like I copy and paste the same message to hundreds of&#8230;]]></description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Cold outreach is typically seen as a numbers game: hit as many inboxes as you can, assuming 5% or fewer will convert. But I’ve never agreed with that approach because I believe my reputation is on the line when I message a stranger. I don’t want them to feel like I copy and paste the same message to hundreds of&hellip;]]></content:encoded>
      <wfw:commentRss>https://sparktoro.com/blog/8-counterintuitive-marketing-strategies-that-actually-work/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
      <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>What Your Marketing Needs is a Bad Guy</title>
      <link>https://sparktoro.com/blog/what-your-marketing-needs-is-a-bad-guy/</link>
      <comments>https://sparktoro.com/blog/what-your-marketing-needs-is-a-bad-guy/#respond</comments>
      <dc:creator><![CDATA[Rand Fishkin]]></dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 16 Feb 2022 06:19:03 +0000</pubDate>
      <category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Product]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Psychology]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[Tactics]]></category>
      <guid isPermaLink="false">https://sparktoro.com/blog/?p=6833</guid>
      <description><![CDATA[If you&#8217;re a big brand, already established, conservative in your ways and happy with your performance, this advice isn&#8217;t for you. But, if you&#8217;re a startup, an underdog, a challenger, you need to hear this.



Villains are a good thing.



Stories with villains make sense. They can be memorable. They can have depth and purpose. Stories without villains are meandering,&#8230;]]></description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[If you&#8217;re a big brand, already established, conservative in your ways and happy with your performance, this advice isn&#8217;t for you. But, if you&#8217;re a startup, an underdog, a challenger, you need to hear this.



Villains are a good thing.



Stories with villains make sense. They can be memorable. They can have depth and purpose. Stories without villains are meandering,&hellip;]]></content:encoded>
      <wfw:commentRss>https://sparktoro.com/blog/what-your-marketing-needs-is-a-bad-guy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
      <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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